


Listen

by PerfectPurgatory



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, force ghost, force vision, grandfather grandson bonding time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 10:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10897443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectPurgatory/pseuds/PerfectPurgatory
Summary: Darth Vader's helmet sings to Kylo Ren, but it suddenly goes silent. Kylo Ren is then thrust into a force vision where he is faced with the truth.





	Listen

He sits there. Just like he does night after night. Meditating on his anguish. Waiting for what, he isn’t entirely sure. Something. Anything. His grandfather has been silent for far too long. He couldn’t feel anything. No disturbance in the force that could indicate that someone was out there, listening to him. Nothing. For the past month, ever since Starkiller was destroyed, the helmet had been eerily silent.

He had heard of force ghosts, how some force users could manifest themselves through the force to communicate with the world of the living. But his grandfather had never done that, no. He had only ever breathed through the force, and Kylo had felt it pull at him from the helmet. It had never told him what to do, just reassured him that he was on the right path. Whenever he would feel the pull to the light, the helmet would sing to him and call him back to the darkness. 

He was about to give up, to go back to his training room and run some more exercises when he felt it. It was stronger than the last time, but still as subtle as ever. If he hadn’t have been meditating, he wouldn’t have felt it at all. But it came to him all the same and beckoned him towards the light. He stood up, looking around the room with caution. It felt like there was someone else in the room with him, but he couldn’t see or hear anyone. There was someone whispering to him, though he couldn’t determine what they were saying. He sat down on the ground, directly in front of his grandfather’s helmet and assumed a meditation pose. If the whispers wouldn’t stop, he would try to drown them out. But they only kept getting louder. His head spun, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he opened his eyes to look around. Again, there was nothing.

He stood up to walk out of the room, but stopped in the threshold. His master would have him stay and overcome the light rather than run from it, and that’s what he intended to do. He just needed to focus and restrain himself.

Walking back to where he sat to meditate, he felt an urge to move towards the pedestal that held his second most prized possession. As soon as his fingers touched the cold, twisted metal, his vision blacked out. There was nothingness surrounding him and he had no idea where he was. He could hear distant voices. No, it was laughter. From a child. 

“Up ya go, kid!” It was a familiar voice. One that he wasn’t used to hearing anymore. A child’s laughter ensued.

“Papa, I want to grow up to be just like you.” The child’s voice sounded in awe of the person he was talking to. 

He looked around himself and realized he was on some sort of freighter.  
Squinting, Kylo could just barely make out two figures in the distance. One was a child. The more they talked, the clearer they became.

“Oh yeah? Well, don’t tell your mom that. She’d have a fit.” The man was younger, maybe in his early thirties. He had just helped the child into the seat of what looked to be a ship.

“I’m going to fly around and visit all sorts of planets. Uncle Chewie can be my copilot too, right?” The boy had messy, black hair. Kylo took a step closer.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind that at all, kid. In fact,” the man had a blaster at his side and slightly greying hair. “I would say he would insist on it!”

Kylo stopped in his tracks. The boy had moles dotting his face. He heard a woman’s voice and the little boy scream “Momma!” but he couldn’t stand to be there any longer. Kylo turned around and ran for the ramp. He knew this ship like the back of his hand and knew right where to run. It occurred to him that this must be a force vision. He had only ever heard of Snoke having them and had never had one himself. Until now. 

Running off the ramp, he felt grates beneath his feet. He was on a bridge. Realizing all too late which bridge he was on, he nearly ran right into an old man. Red light was scattered across the man’s face and it looked pained. Turning around, the Millennium Falcon had vanished. He was stuck on the bridge with this ghost.

“Come home.” Snapping his attention back to the man in front of him, he only saw pain. Pain that was no doubt caused by him. “We miss you.” We. His father and his mother. 

“No,” Kylo shook his head and started stepping backwards. This was just like his nightmares. He didn’t want to confront his father. He didn’t want to confront the fact that he had failed in killing him. He hadn’t felt stronger, he had only felt more vulnerable and weak. 

“Come with me.” His father stepped towards him, hand out. Kylo just kept backing up until he tripped on something and landed on his ass.

Looking around, he noticed that he was in a disemboweled ship. It was sweltering and he wished he hadn’t worn black. Before he could think to take his tunic off, he spotted her. A girl, no more than 15 years old, trying to lift herself up off the cold metal of the ship and failing miserably. She was hurt. There were tears streaming down her face as she kept trying to move, to get out of there. He thought to go towards her and help her up when he suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice. 

“Don’t do this.” He turned around and saw a figure, enshrouded with a blue haze. He was standing over a figure cloaked in black, sitting on a chair in front of a pedestal.

“This isn’t me, it’s him.” He didn’t recognize the man who was talking, but it was then that he realized who the man was talking to. It was him. From when, he didn’t know. Most likely before Starkiller. This couldn’t be happening to him. Again, he started to back away. As the man moved closer to the younger man sitting down, he felt a warmth run through him.

“Please,” the man in blue said. As the man reached for Kylo’s shoulder, his vision was going blurry and the man’s voice sounded distant. Wanting this nightmare to be over, he closed his eyes, willing the images to just go away. He felt like someone was slingshotting him into oblivion.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in the room. His hand was still on his grandfather’s helmet and he was breathing heavily. He couldn’t catch his breath. Backing away and falling into the chair sitting there, he wiped away the sweat on his brow. The words were haunting him. It’s not me, it’s him. Who was the man? And whom was he referring to?

After his heartrate slowed and his breathing went back to normal, Kylo sat again, staring at the mound of melted metal. Concentrating on it, he felt something. Something dark. The helmet was singing to him, like it used to. Humming a discordant tune that called to him. 

Instead of giving into it, however, he concentrated even more. He tried to read a Force signature, anything that would give him any hints as to what it was saying. 

He couldn’t hear anything, but he felt something familiar. A warmth, mingling with the coldness of the dark. It was saying something, a single word. He couldn’t quite make it out. Soap? Snow? That wasn’t it. He concentrated harder and took up a meditation pose. He cleared his mind and evened out his breathing. All things that his uncle taught him.

“Sno-” the last syllable was lost. “It’s Sno-”

Finally, he heard it. Snoke.

He came out of his meditation and sat there. His breathing no longer regulated and his heart picking up its pace, he tried to reason with himself. What does it mean? Snoke. Who was that man? Who was telling him these things?

It hit him. It must be. There’s no other explanation. That man, hazy with blue, was his grandfather. But it wasn’t his grandfather as he knew him. Rather, it was the previous form of himself. Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was talking to him and he hadn’t listened. Did this mean that Snoke was disguising the Force signature of Anakin as one of Darth Vader to control Kylo? 

All this new information is swirling around in his head, especially the vision of his grandfather, but he remembered with a sickening blow to the stomach what else was in his vision. His father was there. His mother was there. He had thrown all that love away. His grandfather tried to warn him. He tried to turn his grandson from the path he had chosen and he hadn’t felt it. 

Because of Snoke. A rage filled Kylo that he hadn’t felt since the scavenger – what was her name? Rey? – had escaped from him. He immediately got up and went for his lightsaber, then paused. He couldn’t just walk in and accuse Snoke of something as grandiose as this. He would have to bide his time, wait for an opportunity. 

He knew what he had to do first. He sat back down, crossing his legs and straightening his back. He cleared his head, controlled his breathing, and reached out towards his grandfather. Maybe this time, he’ll listen.


End file.
